Tuesday, 2 September 2014

The loving husband. The doting wife. The disneyfication of romance and relationships is not lost on everyone. Ariel, like every other Disney princess since time time immemorial, *SPOILER ALERT* gets royally hitched after her 1 hour 18 minutes aquatic adventure. First wavers (and second) would turn in their graves. The Little Mermaid (1989) was the first film I ever saw in the cinema, aged about five. It is one of the few Disney films that I have not regularly rewatched throughout my life since, so when I watched it again recently I did so alongside the Hans Christian Andersen original (1837). Stark, unforgiving and sprinkled with magic, the tale ends - SHOCK HORROR - differently to the film. Ariel doesn't get her happy ending. A 15-year-old mermaid who travels with a talking tropical fish and Jamaican crab in search of human love and a human soul? I'd still recommend it. At any age.